The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday retained the Majuli Assembly constituency in eastern Assam as its candidate Bhuban Gam won the seat defeating his nearest rival Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) nominee Chittaranjan Basumatary by a record margin of 42,141 votes, election officials said.
According to the Election Commission’s declaration, Gam secured 67,242 votes (69.86 per cent) against 25,101 votes (26.08 per cent) bagged by Basumatary and 2,265 votes (2.35 per cent) by Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist) candidate Bhaity Richong.
As per the alliance with the AJP, the Congress and other opposition parties were supporting the Majuli AJP candidate. As many as 1,642 votes (1.71 per cent) were registered for NOTA. Nearly 72 per cent of the 1,33,227 voters had cast their votes in the by-election to the politically significant Majuli Assembly constituency in eastern Assam on Monday.
The by-election was necessitated after former Assam Chief Minister and Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, who won the seat during the 2021 Assembly elections, resigned and was elected to the Rajya Sabha in September 2021 paving the way for Himanta Biswa Sarma to become the state Chief Minister.